Why India’s RSS is lobbying the West amid attacks on minorities at home

India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of the Hindu acold right, says it is organising visits to the United States and different Western countries to bolster its nationalist representation globally and dispel claims it is progressive successful unit against spiritual number groups successful India.

The visits announced connected Tuesday travel amid planetary disapproval regarding number rights successful India and a fewer months aft a US national bureau published a study accusing the radical of carrying retired acts of unit against minorities for decades.

Here is much astir the RSS, and what’s down the visits to Western nations.

What is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh?

The RSS is simply a right-wing Hindu unpaid organisation founded successful 1925 by doc and Hindu nationalist Keshav Baliram Hedgewar successful Nagpur, modern-day Maharashtra.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, sometimes called the Sangh for short, is Hindi for National Volunteer Organisation.

The RSS works crossed society, operating schools, hospitals, magazines and publishing houses, to advocator for the thought of Hindutva, a Hindu supremacist thought that aims to crook India from a constitutionally secular authorities into a Hindu one.

The RSS describes itself arsenic a “Hindu-centric civilisational, taste movement” that aims to “carry the federation to the pinnacle of glory”. It leads a web of much than 2,500 right-wing Hindu organisations called the Sangh Parivar, Hindi for RSS family.

“RSS is known arsenic a fascist organisation due to the fact that if you look astatine the writings of the archetypal ideologues of RSS, they bring inspiration from Mussolini and Hitler,” Apoorvanand, a Hindi prof astatine the University of Delhi who writes literate and taste criticism, told Al Jazeera.

BS Moonje, a Hindu Mahasabha enactment person and mentor to Hedgewar, met Italian dictator Benito Mussolini successful 1931, openly admired fascist younker and subject organisations and saw them arsenic a exemplary for organising Hindu society.

MS Golwalkar, the 2nd RSS chief, wrote a publication successful 1939 titled We, oregon Our Nationhood Defined, successful which helium cited Nazi Germany’s attraction of minorities arsenic an illustration of preserving radical oregon nationalist purity.

“You volition find admiration towards the policies of Hitler. This is however they wanted to woody with the Muslims and Christians successful India,” Apoorvanand, who goes by his archetypal name, said.

“In the contiguous times, their root of inspiration is Israel due to the fact that Israel is besides pursuing the aforesaid argumentation towards Muslims and Christians – to destruct them completely.”

The RSS has been banned successful India respective times, including successful 1948 aft a erstwhile subordinate assassinated independency person Mahatma Gandhi.

The RSS is often described arsenic the ideological mothership of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP was formed successful 1980 by erstwhile leaders of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), including Hindu nationalist person and writer Atal Bihari Vajpayee, aft their divided from the Janata Party coalition.

The BJP archetypal came to powerfulness concisely successful 1996 with Vajpayee arsenic premier minister, but helium resigned aft 13 days erstwhile helium failed to summation enactment for his authorities from a bulk of members of parliament. He won again successful 1998 and served arsenic premier curate for 13 months earlier losing a no-confidence vote. Vajpayee aboriginal served a unchangeable word from 1999 to 2004.

Current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been a subordinate of the RSS since 1972, began his archetypal word successful 2014, marking the archetypal clip the BJP had won a single-party bulk successful the Lok Sabha, the little location of the Indian Parliament. In June 2024, Modi was sworn in arsenic India’s premier curate for a 3rd term. Modi, 75, joined the BJP successful 1987.

Then-Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, present India’s premier minister, stands with chap members of  the RSS to execute a salute connected the past time of a seven-day agelong campy by the RSS successful Ahmedabad, India, connected January 1, 2006  [Amit Dave /Reuters]

Are hatred crimes against minorities connected the emergence successful India?

In 2025, incidents of hatred code against minorities successful India, including Muslims and Christians, roseate by 13 percent, according to the India Hate Lab, a United States-based probe group. The bulk of these instances occurred successful states and national territories governed by the BJP.

Since 2015, a fig of Muslims successful India person been lynched by mobs during disputes astir herding cattle oregon implicit allegations of eating beef. They person besides fallen unfortunate to targeted attacks.

Besides hatred transgression against Indian Muslims, determination has been a marked spike successful hatred crimes against Christians successful India recently. According to the India Hate Lab report, hatred code events targeting Christians rose from 115 successful 2024 to 162 successful 2025, a 41 percent increase.

Christian churches and supplication meetings person besides been subjected to attacks successful India.

Many observers laic the blasted for this emergence astatine the feet of the BJP and the RSS, which contradict that they are responsible.

“What we’re seeing is simply a disturbing escalation successful hatred crimes, violence, bulldozer demolitions, discriminatory laws and hatred code targeting minorities on with the authorities utilizing its afloat might, including the SIR, to systematically disenfranchise number communities,” Raqib Hameed Naik, laminitis and enforcement manager of the US deliberation tank, the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), told Al Jazeera.

The SIR, oregon peculiar intensive revision, is simply a revision of elector rolls that began past year. Critics of the workout person said it has disproportionately removed Muslims and different number communities from the rolls.

“What RSS General Secretary [Dattatreya] Hosabale has been saying, including denying immoderate persecution of minorities, straight contradicts facts connected the ground. It contradicts probe and information from galore planetary quality rights organisations, including ours,” Naik said.

Indian Muslims propulsion angiosperm petals arsenic RSS volunteers march successful Bhopal, India, connected February 23, 2014 [Rajeev Gupta/AP]

Hosabale said astatine a uncommon briefing with overseas media successful New Delhi connected Tuesday that helium had been speaking to gatherings successful the US, Germany and the United Kingdom to “dispel definite misgivings and misconceptions astir the RSS”.

Speaking from the caller 12-storey RSS bureau successful New Delhi, Hosabale said the main allegations against the RSS were that the organisation was a “paramilitary organisation” that promotes “Hindu supremacist things” and “others person go second-class citizens”.

“The information is wholly different,” helium said.

Hosabale met with academics, policymakers and concern leaders during his trips to the UK, US and Germany successful April.

He spent six days successful London and Rugby successful cardinal England, engaging with organisations including Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs and the International Centre for Sustainability successful the City of London, according to the RSS website.

The website said a meal with members of parliament was held that was attended by representatives of the Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats.

After this, helium visited the US, wherever helium engaged with the Indian American assemblage successful aggregate cities implicit 10 days. Hosabale besides conducted discussions with the Hudson Institute, a Washington, DC-based blimpish deliberation tank.

Apoorvanand told Al Jazeera that the Indian Hindu diaspora is becoming financially almighty successful the US and different countries. Diaspora supporters of the RSS assistance money the organisation.

“While enjoying each the rights successful the state they’re successful wherever they person citizenship, they privation India arsenic a Hindu country,” helium said.

After the US travel successful April, Hosabale went to Germany for 2 days, wherever helium met with German argumentation institutions and the Indian community. These included the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, a Berlin-based overseas argumentation deliberation vessel advising the German government, and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a governmental instauration linked to Germany’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union party.

“It is simply a imagination of the RSS to make a web of right-wing blimpish organisations worldwide,” Apoorvanand said.

Hosabale said connected Tuesday that RSS leaders would proceed to sojourn Europe arsenic good arsenic Southeast Asia and different regions to rise consciousness astir the organisation.

The RSS visits followed the work of a study by the US Commission connected International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) successful November. It said the RSS “has been progressive successful acts of utmost unit and intolerance against members of number groups for decades”.

“RSS’s planetary outreach is fundamentally a knee-jerk absorption to the USCIRF proposal to enforce targeted sanctions against the organisation and its leaders for their relation successful the systematic persecution of minorities,” Naik told Al Jazeera.

The USCIRF is simply a bipartisan US national assemblage that tracks spiritual state worldwide and advises the president, the caput of authorities and Congress connected related policy.

“This proposal came from a bipartisan body. That’s what makes it specified a important blow,” said Naik, who founded HindutvaWatch.org, a real-time database tracking hatred crimes and quality rights abuses successful India.

Apoorvanand said respective organisations wrong the European Union and the US person been investigating the authorities of number rights successful India.

If recommended sanctions against the RSS and its leaders are enacted, that could spell the illness of its network, Naik added.

“It would marque the RSS a pariah, including among diasporic Indians, immoderate of whom person played a large relation successful backing and sustaining the organisation, particularly earlier Modi came to powerfulness successful 2014,” helium said.

The RSS has “no enactment but to nonstop their leaders to the US and different countries to bash harm power and to propulsion a counternarrative against the sanctions sermon that’s been gaining crushed successful argumentation circles,” helium added.